Welcome to fabulous Iowa!

OK, I know I keep saying we had a fabulous time everywhere we've been, but we also had a fabulous time in Iowa! We saw family and the Amish. There's no way you can go wrong.


Mia had the chance to meet Nancy's family - Grandma Joy and Grandpa Jack and Aunt Barb and Uncle Steve. But she was most excited to meet my cousin, Valerie, and her little boys, Shane and Dillon. Shane is just a couple months older than Mia, so there was, obviously, lots of trouble to be made. Shane talks a lot more than Mia does, so he was pretty funny, giving her directions and letting her know how to hid in the closet and do other things. Pretty much the only thing they sat still for was to play piano with Grandma Joy.


After eating a lot, seeing the Amish and listening to the kids playing endlessly on the piano, we headed out of Sumner toward Kansas City. It was kind of sad to head home. We stopped by what might be the greatest tourist attraction ever: the world's largest gnome.


Those trick Iowans hid the gnome inside a botanical garden, so we had to learn things along the way.